Understanding the French File of Accounting Entries (FEC)

If you do business in France, managing financial compliance means understanding the File of Accounting Entries—locally known as the Fichier des Écritures Comptables (FEC). This standardized digital file is a legal requirement for all tax-paying entities in France, designed to streamline tax audits and ensure accounting transparency.

Extracting, reading, and verifying this file can be highly complex. Below, we break down the structure of the FEC, how to read its fields, the framework of the French Plan Comptable Général (PCG), and how you can automate this process using Reportomator.

What is the FEC and How is it Structured?

The FEC is a flat text file (typically formatted with tab or pipe delimiters) containing every single accounting entry recorded during a fiscal year. Tax authorities use this standardized format to run automated audits.

For standard corporate tax regimes, the FEC must contain 18 mandatory fields in a strict sequential order. Key fields include:

1. JournalCode: The code of the accounting journal.
2. JournalLib: The label/name of the journal.
3. EcritureNum: A unique, continuous sequence number for the entry.
4. EcritureDate: The booking date of the entry (YYYYMMDD).
5. CompteNum: The account number (aligned with the French PCG).
6. CompteLib: The account label.
7. CompAuxNum & CompAuxLib: Auxiliary account details (for customers or suppliers).
8. PieceRef & PieceDate: The reference number and date of the supporting document.
9. EcritureLib: The description of the transaction.
10. Debit & Credit: The transaction amounts (using commas for decimals, no thousands separators).
11. ValidDate: The date the entry was locked/validated.

Missing fields, incorrect formatting, or sequence gaps can lead to non-compliance penalties.

The French Plan Comptable Général (PCG)

To read a File of Accounting Entries, you must understand the Plan Comptable Général (PCG), France's standardized chart of accounts. Every account number in the CompteNum field of an FEC begins with a specific digit indicating its class:

• Class 1 (Capital Accounts): Equity, loans, and long-term liabilities.
• Class 2 (Fixed Asset Accounts): Intangible, tangible, and financial assets.
• Class 3 (Inventory Accounts): Raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods.
• Class 4 (Third-Party Accounts): Receivables (customers) and payables (suppliers).
• Class 5 (Financial Accounts): Cash, bank accounts, and short-term financial instruments.
• Class 6 (Expense Accounts): Purchases, external services, taxes, staff costs, and financial expenses.
• Class 7 (Revenue Accounts): Sales of goods, services, and financial revenues.

By analyzing the first digits of the CompteNum field, you can instantly categorize whether an entry impacts the balance sheet (Classes 1-5) or the profit and loss statement (Classes 6-7).

How to Read and Validate an FEC File

Because the FEC is exported as a raw text file (.txt), reading it manually is incredibly difficult. A typical fiscal year can contain tens of thousands of rows.

To read it effectively, businesses usually:
1. Import the file into a spreadsheet or data tool using specific delimiters.
2. Reconcile the total debits and credits to ensure the file balances.
3. Check for chronological consistency in entry dates and sequence numbers.

Automate Your FEC Reporting with Reportomator

Instead of struggling with raw text files or manual spreadsheet conversions, Reportomator simplifies your financial data management. As a no-code data collection and reporting platform, Reportomator allows you to:

• Ingest Raw FEC Files: Easily upload your File of Accounting Entries without manual parsing.
• Map to Custom Dashboards: Automatically translate the French PCG structure into intuitive, localized reports for non-French stakeholders.
• Automate Compliance Audits: Instantly verify that all 18 mandatory fields are complete and balanced.
• Streamline Financial Reporting: Combine your FEC data with other business metrics for unified, real-time performance tracking.

Simplify your French financial reporting today with Reportomator.